bodmin16

Reduced after Christmas? Will they become a gauge houses January then?

I like model railway exhibitions, went to Warley last weekend and yesterday I went to Portsmouth where I was extremely honoured to be able to drive some trains on Swaynton. I wish My modelling was half as good as that of the NW Surrey guys, it is always a pleasure to spend time with them and I have learnt a few things. It's been a long time since I have been to Warley and indeed to go to two exhibitions on consecutive weekends, so why do I like exhibitions? Well there are the obvious reasons however I also find exhibitions very inspiring, I like to aim to the high standards of some of the top layouts and at the same time if some of the exhibits are not so great then I can take comfort in the fact that my modest skills are not too bad.. PLEASE NOTE I am not criticising either of the two aforementioned exhibitions or the exhibitors, Warley was a great show and I really enjoyed my day and Portsmouth as always is a top class exhibition with top quality layouts and never disappoints. Any way to inspiration I have had more than the average hours of modelling over the past few weeks, partly due to the number of "reality" TV shows there are this time of year so a quick update. The Crompton now has two more wagons in its goods train and this afternoon I completed the legs for the Alton fiddle yard board, and bonus time it actually fits with the car in the garage! I have also finally finished a tree that I was making or at least I think it is finished, I may decide otherwise at a later date. In September I spent a day at one of Gordon and Maggie Gravetts masterclasses at Pendon learning how to make trees and here is the result. I can thoroughly recommend these masterclasses and of course Pendon. There are a myriad of other things that I have been playing with including my newly purchased static grass applicator, test pieces for ballast and track weathering effects etc so I have small pieces of wood which are various colours, with track, ballast and static grass stick on them. I still need to sort out an issue with the level crossing gates, however unfortunately my laptop which has all the files etc stored on it has died, hopefully we should be able to recover the data soon. Thanks for taking a look and an interest. Alan Is that the Alton end fiddle yard board I see before me or another resting place for layout building materials and tools?

I think it was probabaly my second home. Cross country train from Basingstoke about lunchtime and then return home on another later in the evening, and of course a few trips in Hampshire units. i'll have to have a look through to see if i can find any more half decent pictures. Alan

How about some night shots? A peak at St Pancras and a Class 50 at Reading, both locations now vastly different than they were in the 70s!

The magnets are seep magnets powered by 12v doc power supply. There is a clever little bit of electronics that sends a 2 second pulse of electricity to the magnets when the relevant button is pressed on the control panel. I am taking modellers licence to the extreme, I'm not sure but I may even get it taken away. As I said in the original post this is my take on history meaning this the Basingstoke and Alton light railway lasted way beyond it's real closure date and I have taken liberties to the extreme hence the signals! Apologies to all those that are offended by my interpretation :-)

I like the diagrams of Bentworth station, thanks for posting. As I said in my original post this is very much my version of history and to that end the station building is going to be of a similar design to that of Medstead and Four Marks on the Watercress line. At the moment the station building is a clear Perspex box so a bit of work to be done there. I would like at sometime to build an accurate and prototypical model of one of the stations on the Basingstoke and Alton light railway which would probably be Bentworth and Lasham. It is still just possible to make out where the track used to run in the fields parallel to the Basingstoke to Alton road, although as the field gets ploughed each year it is gradually disappearing. And of course the station has only gone in recent years. There has been some progress to my layout, although it is not immediately obvious. I have converted a further couple of wagons to EM gauge (previously Ratio wagons built to OO gauge), couplings have been fitted to allow more told testing of the uncoupling magnets. Some fettling of the track has been undertaken and experiments with colouring for track weathering etc has been done on some scrap pieces of track. The timber has been cut for the two fiddle yards as the layout has moved from the middle of the garage to one end so that the MX5 can seek shelter during the winter months. I still have room to work on the Layout and I now have a tidy garage as a result, it's amazing how much junk you collect over the years a lot of which is now in the possession of the local council! Just to add a bit of colour a picture. Class 33 waits in the platform for entry into the loop to shunt the Basingstoke to Alton pick up goods. Alan

Just checked triumph stag, one of which I had for 18 years, interesting to see how many summer drivers there are!

In my opinion running a loco for the first time on a new layout is up there in there as one of the best feelings! Always loved IOW railways. Well done Chris waiting for the next instalment now so no pressure. Alan

Hi all, Just thought I'd give a quick update. No photos or videos as not much changed above board or for that matter below. There has been a lot of testing and adjustments, including fettling of the track etc. Briefly we identified a few issues with noise from dirty wheels etc which resulted in servos twitching and doing odd silly things however a software mod and a couple of other adjustments have improved things no end and I am currently continuing testing with the loco with dirtiest wheels to test the system to the maximum. The other thing that has happened is the installation of the components to operate the electro-magnets for uncoupling (DG couplings) and these now appear to be working correctly. A number of adjustments have also been made to the level crossing gates which are in the final stages of installation after reworking the method of mounting the gates on the board. In addition a lot of thought has been being out into a whole raft of other jobs that need doing, these include finishing the fiddle yard boards, building the signals etc etc. Finally I spent last Saturday tidying the garage where the layout currently lives as I have worked out that I can have the layout set up in the garage and get one of the cars in as well. The wife's car being a convertible is not used during the winter and we really wanted to get it back in the garage for the colder and wetter months. I thought I was going to have to pack the layout away and have to move car out to set up every time I wanted to play, well now it appears that I don't have to and I will be able to play trains when ever I get the inclination, what a result! Hopefully I can provide a more detailed update with more to show in the not too distant future. Alan

I can relate to that one, I used to be a real beer monster and now I really have to be in the mood for alcohol. Sometimes it is weeks or even months between drinks, I just don't seem to get the same enjoyment from even the odd tipple anymore unless the mood really takes me. That said when the mood does take me I am a really cheap date as after two pints I am quite happy and don't usually want anymore and after four pints my wife says that I become completely daft and soppy! Is it an age thing?

Sorry I can't see anything either

Does the 2 represent the extra 2 wheels? I'll get me coat :-)

Just a quick post before I take my beautiful wife out for the evening. After a lot of head scratching, a certain amount of frustration and a lot of perserverance and patience I got the level crossing sort of working this afternoon. some tweeks and calibration needed. Please see youtube for some comments/explanation. if you wan to know more please let me know and i'll respond when i have more time. thanks for your patience. Alan

There were many layouts in the Railway Modeller of the late 60s and early 70s, most of which the names I don't remember, including Eastbourne, Buckingham etc etc, that influenced me but probably the layout that had the biggest impact on me was Budston a layout owned by the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society. I remember seeing it at a show when I was about 12 years old, little did I know at that time I would join the society and actually work on and operate the layout through my teenage years. I was totally in awe of the layout as our home layouts had very little scenery, and Budston was "finescale". By today's standards it would appear very coarse, basic and inaccurate I'm sure, but I thoroughly enjoyed the layout and still have very fond memories of it.

Thanks for the heads up, TBH I have not looked at it too much yet and is pretty much as bought. I will have a dig through my photos of the period at sometime and make a decision and check some of the details. I'm not a great one for exact detail but that is probably one of those glaringly obvious errors when you know it's there. Congratulations, you are the first to spot this, and please if you have any other observations please let me know.

Can I play trains with the big boys please? Thanks Alan http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/74650-cliddesden-a-brs-em-gauge-layout/&do=findComment&comment=1131292

Hello ladies and gentlemen, There has been quite a bit of progress since I originally posted, things are moving at a supersonic pace considering earlier rates of progress. Thanks to a huge effort and lot of assistance from my mate Dave Harris we have built a number of MERG boards and programmed the control panel so trains are now running. I sort of know how it works but it is far too clever for my little brain so please don't ask too many questions as I could only string a few non-technical terms together to try to explain what is happening. Basically the push buttons on the panel operate the points, switch controllers between the main line and the yard, and ultimately interlock the signals and level crossing gates. This will include not supplying power to the track over the crossing until the gates are open to railway. Attached are a few pictures and a link to latest youtube video. The wiring needs tidying up! T9 departs Cliddesden with a train from Basingstoke to Portsmouth and Southsea via Alton. This is one of my ebay bargains, £20 finecast kit bought as seen here just needs some minor fettling and details such as smokebox number, crew and minor work on the tender. Runs very well. Alan

All these talk of cars has prompted me to write up my experience of today. About 2 years ago our trusty S reg Peugeot 406 estate broke down and having done 180,000 miles, we decided not to spend more money on it as it was looking like starting to get expensive to keep it on the road so it went to the car equivalent of Barry. After much deliberation we bought a 2 year old X type estate, MOT last year was fine, Failed today's MOT on a wheel bearing - cost £500 plus and they don't have the part in stock at the main dealer. Told them I am not paying because I think they are taking the ......... Liberty, a 5 year old car with 70k on the clock. Woulld have been cheaper to keep the Peugeot, which never needed a wheel bearing and neither has our 1993 mx5. Not happy.

Perhaps he has taken tips from this guy who sells loco wheels in a similar way. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/trebor014809/m.html?item=221263259294&pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item338451669e&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Thanks to all for the positive feedback and I will write more when time allows and there is progress, but it will probably be an occasional series. Some of the photos above are a few months old and there has been some progress since they were taken, once I have the layout wired up and trains running I hope that progress will speed up further. I will also do some more videos. To answer some of the questions: No passing loop - Basingstoke is to the left hand end of the diagram and Alton to the right, the Alton end of the loop is on the Alton end fiddle yard board (i.e. hidden from view) if that makes sense. Buggleskelly - I don't take myself or my hobby too seriously and I plan to have an homage of some sort to Oh Mr Porter, so it maybe a washing line or I had thought of a camera crew involved in a remake of the film etc. "You're wasting your time?" - I'm sure my wife thinks so, but I beg to differ? I have few converted locos and stock together with a couple of kits and also a couple of eBay bargains, and I mean bargains! And going back to not taking myself too seriously I do plan to run a few trains purely because I like them, however I have stories to justify running them. I will elaborate further some other time. Thanks again, Alan